


questions asked and answered

by pierpressure



Series: ZKDrabbleDecember2020 [8]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Azula (Avatar) is A Good Sibling, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Idiots in Love, Kissing, Mutual Pining, Prom, Promposal, Public Display of Affection, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, and the only useful one, pantsuit azula
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:47:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28045659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pierpressure/pseuds/pierpressure
Summary: Zuko’s finally managed to muster up the nerve to prompose to Katara. The only problem is: he can’t find her.His friends are absolutely no help.A Zutara Promposal AU (now with part 2!: meet the family)Day 13: SpineDay 28: Heavenly
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar)
Series: ZKDrabbleDecember2020 [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2037616
Comments: 36
Kudos: 66
Collections: ZK Drabble December 2020





	1. Chapter 1

Weaving through the bustling crowd of the Four Nations high school’s halls, Zuko searched endlessly for any sign of someone he knew.

The situation was laughable-he’d spent the better part of the last two weeks trying to muster up the balls to ask Katara to prom, but now that he finally had, she was nowhere to be found!

It didn’t help that she was leaving for a science fair in Ba Sing Se right after school today and would be gone for the next week. Zuko had stalled long enough- it was now or never. If he didn’t ask Katara today, she’d probably end up agreeing to go with a girl group, according to Azula. His sister wasn’t so much invested in his crush on Katara as much as she was nosy and eager to see Zuko embarrassed. Still, her advice wasn’t bad.

Sometimes you need your little sister to tell you you’re ‘being a gigantic pussy who needs to step the fuck up and grow a spine’, as Azula so lovingly put it.

Catching sight of Toph and Haru’s green clothes as they lounged in front of a locker, Zuko strode towards them with a relieved sigh. ‘Have you seen Katara?” he asked.

“No, Sparky. You’re cutting it awfully close, though. Try the science lab; she was talking about extra credit for chem earlier today,” Toph shrugged with glee, clearly enjoying tormenting Zuko.

“Good luck! I’m sure she’ll say yes,” Haru called out as Zuko started to sprint towards the chemistry room on the second floor.

“Don’t give him false hope, you dummy,” Toph chided as her voice started to fade into the background of chatter.

Shaking his head as he climbed the stairs two-by-two, Zuko didn’t notice Aang and Yue in his path until they were colliding, causing him to drop a pile of fliers for the environmental club all over the stairwell.

“Oh, shit! I’m so sorry!” Zuko apologized as he bent down to help pick them up.

“It’s okay, Zuko. It was an accident,” Yue assured with an earnest smile.

“Yeah. I just wasn’t paying attention because I’m looking for Katara-” he started before Aang whooped.

"What? You _still_ haven’t asked her? Forget about the fliers, go find her!” Aang commanded, throwing the fliers he’d collected into the air again dramatically. 

“Thanks!” Zuko yelled back to them.

“The bus gets here in five minutes, you better hurry up!” Yue warned with an echo through the stairwell as Zuko rounded the corner.

Pretty much everyone in school knew how he felt about Katara, except for Katara. Due to multiple accounts of lousy secret-keeping, Zuko was currently being blackmailed by about five people. Hopefully, that would end today.

Scrambling into the empty chemistry lab, Zuko immediately clasped his hands over his eyes with a loud yelp. Sprawled across the teacher's desk with papers strewn on the floor, Sokka and Suki were fervently making out, with extensive use of tongue. Zuko lamented the fact he could discern that fact as the two paused and pulled apart.

“Gah! Zuko, what the hell?” Sokka berated, attempting to hide Suki’s bra in the pocket of his pants.

“Sokka, I’m the one who should be saying that! But it’s really important: do you know where your sister is?” Zuko demanded.

“Uh, she’s supposed to be leaving, like, right now. I dunno. No clue,” Sokka responded, still fumbling the bra.

“Agni, you’re helpful,” Zuko groaned, nervously loosening the tie of his uniform.

“Oh my. Zuko, have you still not-” Suki started before he answered.

“Yeah, that’s why I’m looking for her!”

“Get out there and find her! She was on the first floor looking for something a few minutes ago!” Suki divulged, shooing Zuko out of the room.

“Thanks!” 

As Zuko raced down the hall, he heard Sokka wonder, “What was that about?”

Scratch Zuko’s earlier statement- the only people who didn’t know about his crush were Katara _and_ Sokka. Shuddering, he faintly heard Suki assure, “Don’t worry, let’s get back to what we were doing.”

Rounding the corner for the opposite stairwell at the end of the second-floor hall, Zuko tripped and slid onto the floor, only to be met with Azula and her posse, Mai and Ty Lee.

Azula gave a smug smile and sweetly asked, “Zuzu! How’d it go?”

“I don’t know. I can’t find her to ask!” Zuko responded in a panic, scrambling to his feet.

“Wow, Zuko, you’re cutting it _really_ close,” Ty Lee remarked with her trademark bubbliness, much to his dismay.

“You Dum-Dum. We just saw her by the English classroom downstairs. Hurry up!” Azula ordered him with her usual air of authority.

“Thanks, Zula!” Zuko called out to her as he practically fell down the stairs while running down.

Throwing the double doors to the hallway open, Zuko bounded towards the English room, stopping dead in his tracks at the sight of Katara leaning against his locker, nervously tapping her foot.

He stood dumbfounded for a moment, caught up in the stitched swirls of waves on her high-waisted jeans, the soft patterns in her crocheted crop top, the way her hair not held up in braids fell onto her back and shoulders. Suddenly remembering the sense of urgency that had plagued him during the haste of the last few minutes searching, he practically slammed into her running.

“Katara, will you go to prom with me?” Zuko forced out, breathless from the chase.

Katara’s eyes widened and her mouth fell open, but she gave no response. The crowd surrounding them had stopped in its place, holding their breath, in anticipation of her response. Zuko felt like the world was crumbling around him with each moment of silence that passed before Katara reached for a rolled-up poster next to her.

Smiling, she unrolled it and held it up for him to see. Written in bold red letters with tiny cartoon flames decorating the poster, it read:

**Zuko,**

**My heart burns for you! Prom?**

“Yes!" they both exclaimed at the same time. Zuko swept her off her feet into his arms with a small surprised yelp from Katara as their lips crashed together.

Unaware of the people looking at them, the bus waiting for Katara, or the bet-money being exchanged amongst their friends, the two of them kissed as if the other's lips were the only thing in existence.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Day 28: Heavenly
> 
> just to clarify: zuko, sokka, and suki are seniors. everyone else is a junior. 
> 
> i said good-bye to the actual age gaps because i wanted everyone attending without the scandal of a senior taking an underclassmen to prom. (which i may or may not have accidentally started in real life. the only positive thing covid has done in my life was bailing me out of that mess. anyways, i'm rambling but please enjoy!)

“Wait, come again? What exactly is the difference between a corsage and a wristlet?” 

At Zuko’s puzzled query, Azula gave an exasperated blow of a face-framing curl not contained in her elaborate updo. Her floor-length pantsuit was (unsurprisingly) a shade of scarlet that would draw all attention at the prom to her and make people wonder if she’d just stepped off of the cover of a magazine’s issue about female CEOs. “How many times do I have to tell you, Zuzu? It’s the same flower thing, but one pins on the dress and the other one goes around your wrist.”

Zuko opened his mouth before she continued, “And don’t you dare ask me which one does which.”

This, paired with her side-eye glare, caused him to promptly shut his mouth. Zuko turned his head, taking his eyes off of the road to face his sister. “Wait, so we got the wrist one?”

“Well, I got it. But we’ll say it’s from you. She’ll love it; don’t worry,” Azula assured with a nonchalant brush of her hand. She then uncrossed her legs, bringing one high-heeled foot to rest on the seat. Zuko would tell her to get her foot off of their dad’s (who may or may not have been aware they were using it) car, but those stilettos could easily be repurposed as weapons. Not to mention, Katara would kill him for showing up to meet her family for the first time with puncture wounds. And just for having the puncture wounds, to begin with. 

“Why didn’t we get the pin one? With the fancier name?”

Azula rolled her eyes. “Because Katara’s dress might not have a lapel to pin it on. Or maybe she doesn’t want to put a hole in it. Trust me, Zuko. Have I ever been wrong before?”

Azula had but Zuko knew better than to admit it when he was currently in her favor.

“Yeah, it’s really pretty and even matches her eyes!” Ty Lee chimed in with a lighthearted giggle from the backseat. The cheery girl was practically drowning in pale pink chiffon decorated with faint cherry blossom designs but somehow managed to not look tacky. 

“Thanks, Ty,” Zuko choked out as he started to drum his fingers on the steering wheel. Ty Lee’s glitter-lined eyes flicked towards the mirror and she gave him an encouraging thumbs-up.

“Relax, Zuko. I’m pretty sure you won’t crash and burn. Too badly, at least,” Azula said with a laugh.

“I know, Zula. I just haven’t done this whole thing before and-”

“You’ve been to prom before. What are you talking about?” Mai interjected, shifting her pale limbs in contrast to the black leather of the car’s seats and fabric of her dress. Zuko hadn’t been surprised in the least when she’d showed up at his door with heavy kohl eyeliner and a jet-black dress cropped just at the point of her legs that she could freely make a break for it if she took off her heels.

Zuko’s voice rose to a higher pitch than he would’ve liked. “Not with a girl! I’ve only been with the boy squad before and if I mess this up and accidentally spill punch all over her so that it looks like she peed her pants and Katara dumps me, I will never forgive myself!

“Whoa, calm down. This much stress is not good for you, especially considering all of our lives are currently in your hands like fragile, cute, baby turtleducks,” Ty Lee chided him in what Zuko believed was supposed to be a soothing manner.

“Thanks for the reminder.” Zuko clenched his fingers around the wheel until his knuckles turned even paler before making a sharp turn off the main road.

“Oh, Agni. We’re almost there. What do I say to her?”   
“Just be yourself,” Ty Lee advised with a smile.

“No, that’s a terrible idea. He’s going to be a huge dork and compare her to some lizard or something. Just be cool,” Azula insisted as Zuko pulled into a dirt road driveway and hit the brakes.

“I appreciate the vote of confidence,” Zuko said meekly.

He tried to breathe deeply and calm himself as everyone filed out of the car. Nervously tugging on his maroon tie, Zuko took the plunge and knocked on the door before Azula could chastise him for wrinkling his ensemble.

Sokka, clad in a questionable tan suit that very clearly was being borrowed from his father judging by the loose-fitting, opened the door with quirked eyebrows. “He’s here, Dad!”

Zuko nervously gulped as Sokka gestured for them all to enter, immediately bombarded by the ill-concealed snickers of Suki, Toph, and Aang.

All sprawled across the furniture of the room draped in multicolored formal attire, they seemed to be in on some shared gag unknown to Zuko as the sound of footsteps grew in the adjoining hall.

Before he knew it, Zuko was being stared down by a tall and muscular man who shared Sokka’s face and his children’s coloring. It took all of his willpower not to squeak at the tension filling the room.

Somehow, the white-haired woman who followed Katara’s dad into the room was even more terrifying. Clearing his throat and approaching them with an outstretched hand, Zuko decided it was definitely due to the piercing blue eyes sharper than any of the wrinkles adorning her face, an exact match to Katara’s in both shade and intensity.

“Uh, hello, Mr. and Mrs. Kuruk,” Zuko stuttered out before Katara’s father grabbed his hand and pulled him into a bone-crushing hug. 

“None of that. I’m Hakoda and this is my mother, Kanna,” he said with a smile that struck Zuko as a less crooked rendition of the one Sokka usually sported. 

The elderly woman took her turn to embrace him and insisted, “Call me Gran-Gran.”

“Daaaad, that’s not how you’re supposed to do it,” Sokka cut in, “you’re supposed to tell him you know where he lives and threaten to end him if he ever hurts Katara.”

“I have a feeling he should be more scared of Katara than her father in that situation,” Kanna chuckled softly.

“True. But I also trust my daughter’s judgment. If you’re anywhere near the guy she’s been raving about every night at the dinner table, I don’t think I have anything to worry about,” Hakoda explained.

Before Zuko could do anything about the hot blush creeping onto his face or smirks from his sister’s pose behind him, a loud thump came from the stairway.

The thump was following by a stumbling streak of blue calling out, “Tui and La, why didn’t you guys tell me he was here?”

Katana stood at the foot of the stairs and Zuko’s breath was immediately lost to the sight before him. An off-the-shoulder pale violet and white gown hugged her figure along with a cascade of long dark hair not contained in the elaborate braids winding around her temples. The light makeup applied onto her already gorgeous features was stunning, but Zuko found himself drawn to her eyes, an ever-steady constant, more than anything else. 

“You look heavenly,” Zuko breathed before he could stifle himself, eliciting a deep blush from Katara as she joined him by his side. Ignoring the muffled giggles from their friends and onlooking parental supervision, he remembered the next step.

“I, uh, got you this. It’s for your wrist,” Zuko stuttered out, holding the wristlet of forget-me-nots held together with ivory ribbon.

“Thanks, it’s beautiful,” she whispered with a smile as he helped her to put it on.

“Alright, I don’t want to be the buzzkill of this romantic moment, but we’re gonna be late if we don’t get going soon,” Toph announced as she heaved herself up from a couch.

The group took the mandatory embarrassing parent photos, but all Zuko could focus on was Katara’s bare back under his touch as he wrapped his arms around her and the floral scent of her perfume. Once Katara’s father and grandmother were satisfied, the group started to call dibs on seats within the two cars being driven by Sokka and Zuko.

Zuko opened the shotgun door of his car for a giggling Katara as her father distantly called out, “Have fun!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so this would've logistically made way more sense as a katara pov chapter. in the name of balance and all of that. but i didn't think of that until i was done writing this, so oh well! because i obviously need more works in progress in the mountainous pile i have already let accumulate, i might end up doing a companion fic to this au from katara's perspective. please let me know what you think (if that's something that sounds like a good idea?)
> 
> and i'm definitely not going to acknowledge the fact that today's prompt was originally supposed to be another chapter of drowning on dry land but ended up being this because i "wasn't in the mood". no mentions of that at all.
> 
> but thank you very much for reading/commenting/kudosing!

**Author's Note:**

> lol this was very inspired by the chibi shorts, if that wasn't already clear. (as well as this animated short film on youtube called sundown that i cannot stop watching) and by the fact my first prom was cancelled last year before my date could prompose, but that's besides the point. 
> 
> it's getting more and more wild that i've managed to write for every single day of december so far, but i'm obviously not mentioning that for fear of jinxing it.
> 
> thank you for reading, kudosing, and commenting.


End file.
